Diner
Diner
bruzson2
Swing Joined: 12/19/14
#1Diner
Posted: 12/19/14 at 8:27am
Saw this Wednesday with all the creatives (I think) in the house. Show is way too long, especially the second act which recapitulates much of what has already been discussed in the first act and has more songs and runs longer than the first act.
Sheryl Crows songs are very good in a few places, competent in other places, and just distractions and time-killers in the remaining places. Her rhymes can be bad and attempts to rhyme singular nouns with plural nouns is far too frequent.
The faithfulness to the movie is not helpful nor is the use of the narrator. The fleshing out of the female characters in song is a plus however. There's almost no dancing, except in a first act highlight.
There seemed to be one (or two) too many directors involved here and judging from lack of communication between Crowe and Marshall during the show (sitting behind us), it doesn't appear that everyone is on the same page or that there's a willingness to cut to make the show work.
I doubt this can be fixed in Virginia and will take a lot more work to make it succeed, which I hope it eventually does as there is enough good stuff here to potentially shape an entertaining (if not groundbreaking) show. It was better than last season's big misfire, "Beaches". But I hope the John Kander show coming up next is a winner. Given the Arlington County bailout for the theater, they need an artistic success in addition to big-name commercial seat fillers.
